Designing (for) Presence

• Who are the presence designers of today – and who takes responsibility for designing mediated spaces, if not the architect? This paper addresses the need for a revised set of conceptual tools for the design of video mediated environments. Such hybrid spaces, constituted of both real and virtual spaces, demand a resolution of contrary experiential and spatial concepts. One example is the mediated workplace of a psychiatrist, who receives and treats her patients remotely. Another example is a mediated museum, providing an extension to an archaeological excavation site, thus allowing visitors to interact and to be guided remotely, in real-time. In both cases, participants at each location experience a sense of presence negotiated through forms of knowledge in dialogic interaction; and they also share material and immaterial spaces – from designs based on a juxtaposition of space(s) enabling mutual gaze, a concept used in reference to conventional visual arts and spatial design. The paper argues that the concept of presence is currently negotiated in a multidisciplinary interaction between users and technicians, who can be named designers, but who often lack adequate conceptual tools to handle the spatial qualities at hand. Presence research is currently dominated by cognitive science and communication technology, but there is potential for a transdisciplinary design-driven approach where media technology meets architectural design; and where spatial and visual conceptual tools, derived from visual and performative art and design practices, may apply.

Keyword

Mediated spaces; presence design

presence research; architectural design; mediated gaze

mutual gaze

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)